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Thursday, September 02, 2010

Memory of a Free Festival

Memory of a Free Festival by David Bowie is a song I've known for years - it's on his 1969 Space Oddity album - but I've only recently discovered it is a true South London song.

Bowie's Beckenham connections have been documented here before, but I didn't realize that this song was apparently inspired by the Free Festival held in Beckenham Recreation Ground, Croydon Road on August 16 1969. The festival was put on by Bowie and others involved in the Beckenham Arts Lab held on Sundays at the Three Tuns pub in Beckenham High Street. As David Bebbington recalls at Beckenham History, 'Bowie played solo, and the bill also included singer-songwriters Bridget St John, Keith Christmas and Toni Visconti'. Comus and The Strawbs also played.

Here's the lyrics:

"Memory Of A Free Festival"

The Children of the summer's endGathered in the dampened grassWe played Our songs and felt the London skyResting on our handsIt was God's landIt was ragged and naiveIt was Heaven

Touch, We touched the very soulOf holding each and every lifeWe claimed the very source of joy ran throughIt didn't, but it seemed that wayI kissed a lot of people that day

Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoonTo paint that loveupon a white balloonAnd fly it fromthe toppest top of all the topsThat man has pushed beyond his brainSatori must be somethingjust the same

We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and sizeWe talked with tall Venusians passing throughAnd Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his headAnd away they soaredClimbing throughthe ivory vibrant cloudSomeone passed some bliss among the crowdAnd We walked back to the road, unchained

The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a PartyThe Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a PartyThe Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a PartyThe Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a PartyThe Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party."

3 comments:

I've never really been able to verify it, but I've heard from a couple of word-of-mouth sources that the Three Tuns in Beckenham was also one of the first London venues to put on a regular reggae night - possibly on alternate weeks from Bowie's Beckenham Arts Lab. There may be some chinese whispers involved in this version of events, but it would be pretty interesting if Bowie's thing and early London/JA soundsystem were both developing in parallel in the upstairs room of the same pub in Beckenham.

Yes, this seems to be true, with the reggae night on Friday and the Arts Lab (which was originally the folk club) on Sundays. At Beckenham History Forum someone posted this a while back: 'At the Three Tuns beckenham at the back of the pub in the 60's there use to be every friday a reggae club, the sounds were by 'Galaxy Sound', it was mixed with skinheads, bluebeaters anyone remember it?'

Walking past Brockley Social Club yesterday I noticed that there was a film shoot in progress. Quick bit of investigation - OK I looked at ...

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